This song evolved from a jam that Jerry came up with and shared with Marc and Richard shortly before the 02.07.2001 Northberg show. Marc gave it the name 84 Seconds Ago, meaning that is how long ago they wrote the song.

In a VH1 interview Marc said the following:
The first time we played it was at (one of) these drunken nights at the Northberg Tavern in Columbus, OH. It was acoustic guitars and Jack Daniels, you know what I mean. We'd create these tunes and that's how it began. The board, the message board, and the internet, they kind of dictated where the song went. "Hey, I hate that part, and I like this part." They took it as their own. We put it on the record as a tribute to them. I think that they pretty much wrote the parts. And it's a song that is about the whole record deal signing, this whole process.